Eyes Wide Shut by Jeanette Friedman February 3, 2006 The Jewish Standard On Friday morning, January 27, 2006, about 2,000 people – Holocaust survivors, their families and friends, UN diplomats and the public – gathered in New York to commemorate the very first observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 61 years after the fact. They watched incredulously as two Holocaust survivors, Roman Kent of the American Gathering and Gerda Weissman Klein, stood in the very same place where a gun-toting Yasir Arafat once stood as he was turned from terrorist into “statesman.” They talked about stopping hatred and genocide, because they knew the heavy price humanity pays for such crimes. Those present realized they were packed into the same room where the heinous resolution, Zionism=Racism, was passed and accomplished its goals of spreading antisemitism deep into the Third World. They were standing in the very chamber where Israel had been condemned time and time again for defending itself against its enemies. The UN event was successful because of hard work by the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and other non-governmental agencies working closely with Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor. The organizers’ greatest fear was that on a weekday morning, on an Erev Shabbat, in the dead of winter, with all the snowbirds in Florida, the hall would not be filled. An empty hall would be a rebuke to the Six Million and turned into a joke or worse by Holocaust deniers. Messages went out over the Internet, popular websites put banners up, phone calls, post cards, pleas from the pulpit—the organizers worked hard to fill the hall and they realized they succeeded when phone calls and emails began flooding their offices. In the week before the actual event, hundreds were turned away for lack of space. It was feared there would be an uproar at the UN gate if all the people who wanted to be there couldn’t be accommodated. The huge turnout was a slap in the face of the Iranian president who insists the Holocaust is a myth and wants Israel wiped off the map. He is, after all, seeking nuclear technologies and possesses rockets that will allow him to target any one of his enemies in a 1,300-mile range. That includes Israel, France, Spain, Turkey, Jordan and a host of other “enemies.” A mass of people showing up at the UN was a form of resistance to him and his ilk. These people came to remember the victims of the Holocaust, and as the all speakers, including Dr. Yehuda Bauer, the noted Holocaust scholar, and Israeli UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman made clear—we must stop the hate. Eager to see how this all turned out in the press, when organizers searched Google, they were sorely disappointed. The only wire service that got Friday morning right was, of all news agencies, Reuters, and few publications had picked up the story. No New York Times, no Washington Post, no networks, no CNN or Fox. The wire service from India, Rediff, got it wrong. They mixed up the big event with a candlelight vigil in the lobby attended by 200 Jewish leaders on Thursday night and reported 200 people showed up on Friday to light six candles in the General Assembly. The editors were referred to the UN website, where the video of a packed hall and the entire ceremony is located (http://www.un.org/webcast/SE2005.html) yet they weren’t willing to correct the error after they were called on it. Two hours later, Aljazeera.com jumped all over the “200” number and declared in a headline that the UN was manipulated. (http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=10512) What kind of conclusion can one reach from this? This is a muted triumph, said Kent, a survivor of Auschwitz and Flossenberg concentration camps. It's 61 years too late. But it's very important to have this at UN Headquarters, especially now. Despite best efforts, mainstream news organizations—the eyes of the world—shut them to this event; to what is essentially the final “en masse” public warning from the Holocaust survivors. They know better than most when danger looms. And they sense it now. But those who can make a real difference, like the media, don’t seem to care. Holocaust fatigue you know. No need to waste ink. Better to do a segment on an accidental S&M death in Westchester (Fox5 10 p.m. news). Hannah Arendt and Elie Wiesel and others have warned us repeatedly: not caring, not seeing, is dangerous. No one cared while the Holocaust was going on, no one cares about current genocides, and certainly eyes are shut tight when it comes to figuring out what happens next in a world where lunatics get their hands on weapons of mass destruction. On the same day the Jews and their friends packed the UN General Assembly Hall, a UN diplomat involved in negotiations to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, El Baradi, urged the Bush Administration to hand over nuclear power plants to Iran. The next day, Putin decided to expand Iran’s enriched uranium program, and Hamas said it will never recognize Israel’s right to exist. Go figure.